Will and Kate

The little prince’s name has been revealed! Is everyone else as surprised as I am?? I don’t remember seeing Louis listed as a possibility in any of the articles I read, and the French pronunciation is yet another unexpected bit! (Though adorable! I love the French pronunciation!) Edited to add: Turns out this pronunciation is not only French, but also an accepted English pronunciation and distinct from the French for those with discerning ears. According to Behind the Name, LWEE is the French pronunciation (I’ve also see loo-EE), and LOO-ee is one of the English pronunciations.

I’m very surprised by the re-use of Louis, as well as (though less so) a name in the Charles family. A straight copy of Prince George’s second middle as the new prince’s first name is so unexpected! Regarding the use of Charles after big sister Charlotte, I know several families who have this specific example in the first name spot — a Charles first name for a boy and a feminine Charles variant for his sister’s first name — and few people ever seem to really notice after a while (if ever, except us namiacs!), so really, one child’s first name and one child’s second middle being the same isn’t that big a deal.

It’s kind of neat, really, that the new prince has one name shared by his brother (and dad) and one name shared by his sister — it’s a nice little connection between them all.

All in all, I love it! I love love love being surprised by names, so this was a really fun announcement the day after it seemed the name had accidentally been leaked (was the palace being cheeky, messing with those reporters? If so, I’m actually really impressed!).

But, like last time, I just can’t get too into it. Royal baby naming is so different than regular baby naming, don’t you think? I mean, it seems that they only choose from a certain pool of names, which I’m not interested enough in to even figure out what that pool is. (So says the mom who won’t stray outside of Catholic saints when naming her children. But our pool is so large!) And they string so many names together, what with the four or five middle names (or, I guess, just two, as in the case of Prince George), all of which are meaningful to them, I know, but I don’t even really know what the criteria is that they use. It certainly doesn’t seem to be flow, at least to my ear (though I think Kate and Will did really well with the flow of George’s name). And again — I’m just not interested enough to figure out what formula, if any, they all use.

But, if I had to guess, I might think of these names (first names only) as befitting a brother or sister for Prince George Alexander Louis:

Charles, Francis, Philip

Elizabeth, Caroline or Charlotte, Jane

I personally always look to family names as one of my first places of inspiration, hence Charles (Will’s dad), Francis (Kate’s dad’s middle name), Elizabeth (Kate’s middle name, her mom’s middle name, and Will’s grandmother’s name), and Caroline/Charlotte (feminine form of Charles; Carole is also Kate’s mom’s first name, and Charlotte is her sister Pippa’s middle name). I also like my sib sets to go together, to feel similar in style, hence Philip (chosen at first because I know a little George who has a brother Philip, and then I realized it’s also a family name for Will — it’s his grandfather’s name, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip — and a family name for Kate — her sister Philippa/Pippa), and Jane (Jane Seymour, not the greatest association, but it’s British and royal, and I like it with George). I think Francis might be the outlier here — it doesn’t strike me as a royal British name — but I’m keeping it on there anyway.

For middles, I would look again to family — any of those I mentioned above would make good candidates, as would Diana (in fact, I’d be shocked if they didn’t use some part of Diana’s name somewhere for a little girl), Spencer (Diana’s maiden name), Michael (Kate’s dad’s first name). It was mentioned that the Scottish would be happy with George’s middle name of Alexander; perhaps Margaret would make a good contender for a middle for a girl for the same reason? (It’s “still considered the Scottish national name.”)

So. If it were me naming the sibling of big brother George Alexander Louis, I’d choose:

Philip Spencer Francis

Caroline Diana Margaret

I didn’t read any of the articles I cited above before making my picks, and now that I’m perusing them … I see Philip, Caroline, Diana, Elizabeth, Charles, Charlotte from my lists; others mentioned include James and Victoria. Ok, I didn’t do too badly picking names that a royal might choose! The only picks of mine that I don’t see mentioned are Spencer, Margaret, Francis, and Jane.

And I’ll also throw out a gender prediction: I’m guessing boy, since Kate is sick like last time (prayers for her! Hyperemesis gravidarum sounds like the very Pit of Despair), and all my pregnancies have been more or less the same in regards to level of sickness, and I’ve only had boys. Very scientific assessment, I know. Be sure to check back when the baby’s born to see how I did!

Blog Stats

1,187,473 hits

Email me!

sanctanomina@gmail.com

Search for:

"Choose your names in a joyful way. / Think of the Saints and holy things, / And then just watch how your heart sings / When the name meant for you to choose / Comes to your mind, as you do muse!"
~ name wisdom from my Mom, an Irish poet

Amazon Affiliate

Sancta Nomina is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Start shopping!